Forest Through the Trees

Chapter 4 (Kaleb)

I like to consider myself an optimist. I see life as a series of obstacles, or problems that need solving, and I love to solve problems. I’m optimistic because there haven’t been many problems in my life that I have been unable to think myself through.

Except for maybe one…

Girls.

No one has ever accused me of being a lady's man. It just doesn’t come as easy for me as it does for some guys. I find myself getting flustered around them, overthinking what I should say, and end up looking like a babbling moron.

I guess there is one other thing in my life that brings into question my optimism.

Willow.

My sister is like a magnet for trouble and brings on more problems than one can handle sometimes. I love her to death. But some days I feel like I need a vacation. Today is one of those days.

“I’ll admit, it is beautiful here,” I say as I take in a deep breath.

The place where we get ice cream is packed. People of all ages are out enjoying a perfect evening. There is a slight breeze coming off of the lake and the sunset is a brilliant reddish-orange. To top it off, it is early September, so the weather is still warm.

My sister makes a scoffing noise. “Yeah, I guess. Would love to take some pics if we ever get through this line!” She gestures to the people ahead of us, ordering a ton of food.

She seems agitated. More so than usual. I know she is just as homesick as me and that things have been hard for her lately. It's been hard on me too. But we used to have a lot of fun together, and now I can’t even remember the last time I saw her really smile. I want my old Willow back. It was always the two of us against the world, more so when it came to our home life. We always had each other's backs, a lot of the time that is all we had. I would give anything to have a piece of that back.

I drape an arm around her. “Come on, Cheer up. We are almost to the front, and I’m buying… Again.” She gives me a small smirk. “What is not to like about that?”

She shrugs out from under my arm.

“Well, in that case, I am going to get a double.”

I roll my eyes at her.

We are second from the front. The food pavilion is a small brick building with just a tiny window. I can see one girl working cash and helping customers, and behind her several people hustling around trying to fill the mounting orders.

My sister nudges me in the side with her elbow and says under her breath, “Hey Kaleb, she’s pretty cute…”

She. Being the cashier. The girl has brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a very unattractive orange and white hat that matches the uniform she is wearing. She looks to be around our age though, and she does have a really pretty face, with light blue eyes and plump lips. I would agree she is very pretty.

She makes me think of Nadia.

That is one major regret. If we didn’t have to move away, who knows what could have happened? I was already falling for her and, even more astounding, I think she was actually falling for me too.

I inwardly sigh. I guess I’ll never know.

Glaring down at my sister, I give her the “please don’t do anything to embarrass me” look.

“Uh oh, I forgot…” She plays innocent. “… Mr. Perfect has a Hercules Heel... Talking to a woman.” She says, flashing me a sly smile. “Would you like me to order for you? You know… so you don’t have to make eye contact with her?”

I grit my teeth. She is kind of right, but I’m not THAT bad.

“First of all, it’s Achilles Heel, not Hercules. You know… Achilles? like the Achilles tendon in your ankle. And secondly, I’m fine thanks.”

Willow laughs sarcastically. “Riiiigh.”

Damn it. She is totally going to psych me out.

The people ahead of us collect their orders and move away. It’s our turn and I mentally prepare myself as we approach the window. I can do this, she is just a person. A very attractive female person, who can strip me of every bit of confidence I don’t have and leave my manhood in shreds.

Will lets out a humorless laugh under her breath. “This should be good.”

As we step up to the window, the girl flashes us a board smile. “Welcome to Doc’s. What can I get you?”

Before I can say anything, I catch a glimpse of something glittering. It’s her metal name tag. It says, Jessie. That makes me wonder if that’s her full name or if it’s short for Jessica or Jessalyn or about a dozen other similar names. Which then makes me wonder why she would choose to go by a name that is predominantly male. My sister hates it when I call her Will instead of Willow…

I get a hard nudge in my side.

I look over to see my sister glaring at me. A look of smug disbelief on her face. I look back at Jessie and she is now glaring at me too with her arms crossed and I feel my face getting warm.

Oh god.

“Are you gonna place an order asshole or just stare at my chest all day?”

“No, I wasn’t… You, I… Your name tag…”

She shoots daggers at me with her eyes and I know my face is blazing red now.

Oh god. I am a complete i***t. I wish I could shrink into nothing right at this moment.

Thank all that is holy, Willow steps in front of me.

“I’m Sorry… Apparently, my brother is mentally challenged today. I’ll have a TRIPPLE...” She looks over at me “...cone of black cherry, and Casanova over here will have a baby scoop of mint chocolate chip.”

Jessie purses her lips and gives me another once-over before punching in our order. I scrub a hand over my face. Kill me. I can never show my face here again and I’m just praying that I am way off about how old she is, or that she happens to go to a different school in another town, so I never have to see her again.

Willow holds out her hand to me and clears her throat.

God. What now?

“Money?” she says, rolling her eyes.

I pull money from my wallet and place it in her hand. I might as well let her take care of the rest. It would give me an excuse to… I don’t know. Maybe crawl under a rock and die?

I’m an optimist, I’m an OPTIMIST!

My sister hands me back my wallet and takes a long lick of my cone before handing it over to me. “Nasty. I don’t know why you like this crap.”

I say nothing as we walk towards the water.

“Well, that went about as well as I expected.” She giggles and nudges me when I still say nothing. “Hey. It could have been way worse.”

I let out a long breath, my face still feels hot and I am really not in the mood to be made fun of at the moment. “I’m not sure how it could be.”

She starts to laugh. “No… I think she actually liked you.”

She can’t contain herself and starts to full out laugh uncontrollably. The sound almost startles me. I can’t remember how long it has been since she has laughed like this. I temporarily don’t care that it’s at my expense.

She continues to laugh until she can barely breathe and she starts gasping in big breaths. It makes me start to laugh too.

“Oh, shut up, will you? It’s really not funny. Did you see the look on her face? That girl seriously thinks I am a perv now. I’m so embarrassed.”

“You’re embarrassed? I had to stand there and witness you make a complete ass out of yourself and then had to admit you are my brother. The second-hand embarrassment will have me cringing for years. Oh man… that’s going in the “never live it down” file.”

Great. I know she means that too. I have several incidents filed away that she brings up at random and very inappropriate times.

We make our way up the wooden dock that leads out over the water towards the setting sun as she continues on making fun of me.

“Hey. Do you remember that time you made a complete jackass out of yourself in front of that pretty server?”

I glare at her, and she feigns sympathy.

“Oh I’m sorry… Too soon?”

She roars with laughter yet again.

“Har, har, har” I fake laugh. “You can stop any time.”

“Hey, I should go back and get her number for you…” She actually turns back like she means to do it.

“That’s it,” I say, grabbing hold of her arm and dragging her over towards the edge. At first, she is laughing too hard to realize what I’m doing.

“Time to cool you off.”

She realizes what I mean and starts pushing back against me and gripping onto my sweater.

“Neither of us can swim you i***t, and if I go, you go.”

“Fine with me, it would be worth it.”

“DON’T YOU DARE! I HAVE MY CAMERA!” She shrieks as I haul her even closer to the edge.

“Well, then you know what you have to do.” I give her a sly smile.

“NEVER!” she tries to struggle and pushes against me, but I’m way bigger than her, and I don’t budge.

“Say it!” I demand as I lean her out over the edge. “Or we are going for a swim.”

“You wouldn’t.” She counters, but the look in her eyes says she isn’t exactly sure that I won’t drop her off the edge. It would be satisfying. For a moment, anyway. But I’m sure she will make me feel bad about it later.

“Are you really sure about that?” I grin, and let her slip out of my grip a little further.

Her eyes go wide. “Fine.” She relents.

I give her a triumphant smile as I pull her back onto the dock just a little.

“Good. Then say it!”

She gives a long exasperated sigh before reciting the speech I used to make her say when we were kids. “Oh, Great Kaleb. So wise and strong. Please spare me…” She trails off and looks around like I am embarrassing her.

Good! She can be the one embarrassed for once.

“Keep going,” I prompt.

She rushes through the last part. “For I am ignorant and not worthy of your kindness… blah blah blah. Are you happy now?”

I pull her back from the edge and shrug. “Meh. I guess that will do.”

She gives me a punch in the arm as hard as she can.

“You are an asshole! Were you really going to drop me?”

“Guess you’ll never know,” I say over my shoulder as I continue walking along the dock.

We walk in silence for a while. I know she isn’t really mad. We are even now. I think we are both just enjoying the view.

“It really is beautiful,” She says. Breaking the silence.

She hands me her ice cream and starts taking some pictures of the surrounding shoreline and the sunset at the end of the dock. She has a really nice camera. It’s one of those Cannon DSLR ones, and she is actually quite good at taking pictures. I don’t have the “eye’ as she puts it, because all of my pictures turn out blurry or off-center. I prefer to be hands-free anyway. I usually don’t even carry my phone with me.

I sigh. This is nice. Willow is focused on her photography, while I am stealing licks off of her cone.

Yep. Optimist. I’m over that embarrassment.

Mostly.

Besides, nothing much worse could happen now anyway. I’m lost in thought gazing out over the water when snapping fingers appear in my view.

“Hello? Earth to Kaleb? Can you please stop scarfing down my ice cream?” She says, with a raised eyebrow and a hand on her hip.

“I was just trying to keep it from dripping.” I lie, taking another lick.

She grabs her half-eaten cone from my hand and gives it and me an angry look.

“Seriously? You ate half of mine and haven’t even touched your own, and it’s all wet with your spit… What the...” I see her eyes go wide with shock as she looks behind me, and I hear someone yell from down the dock.

“HEY, LOOK OUT!”

A millisecond later, something strikes the back of my legs, buckling them at the knees and I pitch forward. There is a look of pure horror on Willow's face as she realizes what I already know. I try helplessly to steady myself, but I’m too close to the edge.

I’m going over.

I only have a second to react. I push out with my legs as I fall, so I can get far enough away from the edge to not scrape against the side on my way down.

Several things are going through my head as I hit the water.

1) I thought the water would be a lot colder but it’s actually kind of nice.

2) Thank god I left my phone at home.

3) I had barely touched my ice cream and now it is mush in my hand, and there is no way in hell I’m going back to get another one.

4) I was wrong, my day CAN get worse.

5) What the hell hit me?

6) How am I the one in the water right now and is this karma for what I did to Willow?

7) It’s actually quite peaceful down here. I could stay down here all day.

And that’s when the realization strikes all at once, like getting hit by a truck.

I really could stay down here all day.

Despite the fact that I just got knocked into a lake, fully clothed, by god knows what, topped by the fact that I really can’t swim, I am completely relaxed. I’m not cold or uncomfortable. And even more astonishing is the fact that my lungs aren’t screaming for air as they should be.

What the hell is going on?

Now I am starting to panic a little.

I take a look around. It’s hard to make much out because the water is murky, but looking up I can see golden light filtering through the surface, sparkling on the waves. I look to be about 10 feet down maybe. This is not a surprise since the dock sits a good 12 or so feet above the water so it makes sense that I would sink quickly falling from that height. What is odd though, is that I can see my sister and another person staring down over the edge. How is it possible that I can see that far through the water?

I start to swim forward, still somehow holding my breath, heading underneath the dock to the ladder that I spotted earlier on the other side. I cut through the water effortlessly, swimming like I have fins.

Seriously, what is going on?

I have been to a waterpark a hand full of times in my life. It’s not like I have never been around water. But the water was never more than chest deep, so I never had the opportunity to really swim. Or even learn how to swim for that matter.

I guess I’m just a natural?

I can see the ladder, it is just metal rungs attached to one of the concrete pillars the dock sits on. The problem is… it starts about 4 feet above the surface before continuing to the top. I doubt I would be able to reach it, and wonder why they would make a ladder that doesn’t go all the way to the bottom. It’s dumb.

Then I get another idea.

I swim straight down to the bottom of the lake, directly under where the ladder is. I have no idea why I think this will work but I give it a shot anyway.

I reach the bottom, plant my feet firmly, and kick-off as hard as I can. Despite the fact that I am at least a good 15 feet down, I have no resistance, and I rocket to the surface and shoot out of the water high enough to grab the ladder three-quarters of the way up.

I’m in shock.

What the hell? How did I just do that?

I begin to pull myself up, taking a breath of air that burns my lungs.

OK, now I know I’m going crazy.

As I climb, I hear my sister talking to someone, with a panicked tone to her voice.

“Oh my god, he’s not coming up. Why isn’t he coming up? He doesn’t know how to swim. He is going to drown down there.”

“f**k, I’m so sorry, I’ll go in after him.” Says a male voice.

I finally reach the top of the ladder, heaving my saturated body onto the wooden dock. I roll over to see a tanned, black-haired guy taking off his shirt and kicking out of his shoes.

My sister catches sight of me.

“Holy Hell, there he is.” She rushes over to me, dropping to her knees. “Oh my god Kaleb, Holly crap. Are you OK? I didn’t see you come up.”

“I went for a surprise swim in my jeans and sweater. How do you think I am?”

Sarcasm masks the fact that I am scared to death right now. But it works and relief replaces her worry as she realizes I’m fine, and she smacks my arm.

“You had me scared to death butthead! It looked like you were under there forever.”

I am now very uncomfortable and extremely confused.

“I’m fine… Really. But what the hell happened?”

The shirtless guy comes over and offers me a hand. I take it.

“Uh. That’s my fault. Or rather my dumb-ass dog’s fault. He was chasing some birds and ran right into you. I’m really sorry man. You sure you’re OK?”

I give a humorless smile, looking down at myself.

“Well, I have been better, but yeah I’m fine.” It takes a second to realize what he has said. “Wait. You said your dog did this?” I ask disbelievingly.

The guy gives me a cautious smile, probably unsure if I’m mad enough to take a swing at him or not. I’m not. I have never hit anyone in my life.

That’s when a massive yellow dog comes guiltlessly padding up the dock and sits wagging his tail and leaning up against my sister like he hasn’t done a thing wrong.

Willow bends to scratch him and rub his neck.

“Aww he is sooo cute!” she gushes.

The guy and I both grimace down at her fawning all over the train wreck that literally sent me over the edge. She notices us gawking at her in disbelief and stands back up.

“Sorry…It’s just…hard to believe how something so cute could cause so much trouble.” She starts laughing. “Well, at least it’s not the worst thing that has happened to you today.”

Needless to say, I don’t find it funny.

I look from the dog that has the goofiest look on his face, almost like he is smiling, to his owner, who is staring at my sister. He notices me notice him and clears his throat, stretching his hand out to me.

“Hi, I’m Jamie.” He says as I shake his hand.

I don’t respond. Just watch as he wipes his now wet hand on his pants before offering it to my sister.

“Willow,” she says. Too busy petting the dog again to shake his outstretched hand, but she answers for me as well. “And this is my Brother Kaleb.”

“Oh. You’re brother and sister. That’s cool.”

I really don’t like the way he said that, and I’m not sure I like him or his dumb dog either.

“Look, I’m really sorry about this. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”

The question is obviously directed at me, but he keeps watching my sister.

Ok. Now there is a 50/50 chance I’m going to hit him.

“No thanks,” I grumble. “Will?” I say down to her through gritted teeth as she is still petting that damn dog! ”Can we PLEASE get going? I am freezing my ass off here!”

I am already walking back down the dock not waiting for a response. I’m soaked, cold and irritated. Not to mention growing increasingly aware of how awful I look as every person I pass turns to stare at me. I would say that NOW it can’t get any worse, but I don’t want to jinx it.

Besides, I would be wrong.

I just passing the pavilion when who comes around the corner right in front of me?

Jessie.

JUST GREAT!

I stop dead before her as she gives me a once-over. Failing to hide the laugh that escapes her at the sight of me.

“The water is pretty dirty this time of year, you know, on account of all the geese. You might want to consider a cold shower instead next time.” She takes a step toward me and grabs a piece of algae out of my hair. She gives me a smile that says I got what I deserved.

All I can do is shake my head, surprising myself when I start to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of this whole afternoon.

Jessie shakes her head as she walks past me and I can’t help but turn around to watch her go. Just before I find the will to tear my eyes away, she looks back at me too.

Well, maybe one good thing happened today after all.

And that's why I am an optimist.